Before the blossoms fall: Life and death in Japan

This book focuses on a handful of central issues: the position of women, the problems of youth, the dilemma of the aged who, as in the U.S., are forced out of their children's smaller homes and retire too early on an inadequate pension, and the familiar problems of a dehumanizing industrial society. Mrs. Keith has achieved to expose a composite of what the Japanese wish a stranger to know; along with her spontaneous observations of individuals and crowded cityscapes.